For a variety of perfectly good reasons we only had three guns out on the shoot yesterday, and one of them hadn’t brought his gun as he was working his young dog. Consequently my eldest boy was promoted from beater to gun, as per the articles of our syndicate to support young guns. He shot with his .410” manfully, but manually cocking the action on walked up birds put him and his 24.25” barrelled piece at a disadvantage when shooting single 12gram subsonic loads. We had a fabulous morning, he didn’t down any birds but hit a hen which was then hit again with the 12 bore. Before lunch the 2.5 guns had accounted for 14 pheasants, 2 woodcock, 2 squirrels and one rabbit. Such great fun. Lunch was game stew of muntjac, woodcock, pheasant, chantenay carrots and baby rabbits (shallots), followed by birthday millionaire brownies for the other gun. The boys had helped with the cooking and did not waste the excess of food. It was demolished with gusto. My son is chomping to get his new 28 bore gun, but his birthday being mere days before the end of the season it will be next year season before it comes to the fore. He beamed with pride being promoted to the line of guns. Frozen and wet by the end but three boys full of joy. I’m thankful to my two fellow guns for making it a special day.
great memories being made 
